Juventus line up £15m transfer move for John Obi Mikel from Chelsea

Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel is being lined up by Juventus in a deal which could cost the Italian giants £15m.

There seems to be a changing of the guard going on at Chelsea currently, with owner Roman Abramovich ordering a clear out of the so called “dead wood” within the side.

Andre Villas-Boas is keen to stamp his authority on the side also and make it his own, therefore Mikel, along with a whole host of Chelsea regulars over the past four seasons are likely to be moved on to make way for new arrivals.

The west-London side have already sold Nicholas Anelka, and are willing to set free defender Alex, Soloman Kalou and possibly Frank Lampard, along with the Mikel, who has fallen out of favour since a mistake he made against Liverpool earlier in the season which saw Maxi Rodriguez open the scoring. Liverpool went onto win the match.

Former Barcelona B player Oriol Romeu has emerged as the man to replace Mikel in the heart of the Chelsea midfield, with the Spanish star thought to be seen as a better all-round player than the Nigerian by manager Villas-Boas.

This has alerted Juventus to make a formal offer for the ball-winning centre midfielder – a position that manager and Juventus legend Antonio Conte is keen to address.

The Old Lady are currently second in Serie A and are incredibly still unbeaten in the league this season. They have recently been boosted financially by a significant investment from a Korean-based company in recent weeks and look set to stump up the required £15m to get their man.